Caught Up: Bryan Fox

Caught Up: Bryan Fox

Photos: Scott Serfas

Words: Hondo

Bryan Fox is a dude who loves snowboarding: Nothing more, nothing less. It shows in his riding too. It's not flashy, it's not pompous, it doesn't have that 'look at me feeling' that can be all to familiar in snowboarding, it's just awesome snowboarding. But unfortunately he recently broke his ankle. So we sat down with Bryan to find out how he hurt himself, what he did this winter, and what he's up to this summer.

Riding powder is the best thing ever.

How did you hurt your ankle?

It was random. I was snowmobiling home in Whistler from a super long day. It had been a really good day, and I went to take this weird shortcut. But it was super icy so I was kind of going down this weird luge. It's hard to explain, but you kind of just go out of control, and your brakes don't work and it's really funny most of the time. But I just happened to hit this weird bump and my foot just barely flew off the running board and hit this chunk of ice and turned my foot backwards. So I get to the bottom of the shortcut and I'm like, "Oh shit." I didn't know what was going on, I was just in shock. I'd never broken a bone before. So I was just kind of tripping out. So I ended up snowmobiling out, it was like 20 miles. So that was pretty f—ked up. But it's super mellow. I only have three more weeks off.

We bet you would be doing the same thing after your first line in Alaska.

What else have you been up to this season?

Well shit, I don't know, I rode a lot of pow, but that's pretty standard. I traveled with Curtis [Ciszek] and Austin [Smith] a lot, but that's also pretty standard. I was filming for Videograss, and for a Quiksilver project with Trent [Ludwig] but you know most of the time I just film with Curtis and Austin and then just give the footage to Justin [Meyer]. It's kind of a loose program, you know? But I guess I snowboarded a lot more this year than I have in a long time. I don't really know why, maybe I just wasn't filming as much?

Oh damn, that's cool.

Yeah, and I also did Travis's contest [Ultra Natural], and then spent some time out in Revelstoke. I basically spent my whole winter out in British Columbia. I spent a couple weeks in Mt. Baker, but other than that I was out in British Columbia for three months. It was cool. I just chilled up there. I didn't really panic. I didn't really drive around that much, I would just stay in certain places and ride pow and go out everyday, even if it was shitty out.

Helping to set up the Ultra Natural course is a right of passage. Bryan is stoked to carry this log.

What was the first thing that popped into your head when you got invited to the Ultra Natural?

I was mostly worried about, I don't know, looking dumb. Once the TV show aired I guess you couldn't see very many peoples runs, so it didn't matter, but in my brain I was like, "This is going to be fucking embarrassing. Like okay we have Wolle [Nyvelt] he drops, and here's Nicolas [Müller], and Terje, and now this Bryan Fox guy." I didn't have an excuse like say Mark McMorris, where people are like, "Oh well he's the best at this other thing, so that's why he's not doing very well at this." But I don't really have an excuse you know? For the people watching that have heard of me, they're like well this guy rides powder, there's no reason why he looks so retarded. [laughs] But it worked out for me. It was fun.

We can only imagine the feeling of standing on that podium…

Are you relieved that you made the transition so that you don't have to hit handrails anymore?

Yeah, kind of. It's kind of a weird one because I still think that stuff is really fun. The last time I went on a rail trip, I had a blast, but it's just come to that point I guess. It might also have to do to the fact that I'm just not up to par skill-wise, like if I go to a downbar with Danimals there's only so much the ego can take…[laughs] When you sit there and watch someone like that snowboard and you're like, "F—k man." And it's not like I really ride snowboard parks either, so if I go on a handrail trip it would basically be the first time I put my snowboard on metal. So it's pretty ridiculous in that way. But that shit's cool man. I just watched the new Quiksilver teaser, and it made me think like "F—k I should have went on one of those trips, and tried to do whatever the minimal amount of tricks I do know how to do." But yeah, at the end of the day I like being out in the mountains. It's just like an extreme escape from reality, you know? You're just out there being a little kid, like your parents let you go tromp around in the woods is what it feels like compared to going out on a rail trip.

Yeah rail trips are weird. You drive in a van, go to a spot, set it up, watch people session something while you stand around, and then it's done.

Yeah, and then get kicked out. You know, I'm about to be 30 years old and I just think of it like, what if I came outside and some f—king kids were on my roof. I'd be like, "Get off my f—king roof. [laughs] Like sometimes people come out and they're like, "What the fuck are you doing?" And I'm like, "That's a good question." [laughs] People might say that in the backcountry too, but there's no one out there, so you can escape reality.

We also think it would be hard to hit handrails when you could go on trips to let it spray like this.

What are you plans for the summer?

Well I guess just rehab my ankle, and try to skateboard and surf. We're putting on the Rat Race on the seventh of July, up at Mt. Hood. So we're going to start planning that shit. But I don't know, maybe go to Chile or New Zealand or something and try and snowboard in August.